Here you will find the rules for all of the tournaments. Individual tournaments will also have their own rules on their respective pages.

UK PINBALL OPEN

Saturday is qualifying day for the UK Pinball Open.

If you're not a pre-qualified player from the UK Pinball League, you need to play on Saturday to qualify for Sunday's final rounds.

There are six machines in the qualifying round.

Contestants register and pay their £5 entry fee, in return they will receive a score sheet, a player number and a name badge. This entitles them to one game on each of the six machines during the qualifying period.

Contestants may only enter the UK Pinball Open once and it is their responsibility to ensure they complete all their games within the announced qualifying period, allowing for waiting time when appropriate.

Each of the six machines may only be played once per contestant and all games must be started by one of the stewards. Contestants may play alone or as part of a multi-player game if they prefer unless there are other contestants waiting to play the machine in which case only single player games are allowed.

When the contestant’s game is over, their score from the machine is recorded by a steward after which they should move on to the next available machine of their choice.

When all six machines have been played and the scores recorded, the contestant’s entry is completed and they should vacate the playing area. If a contestant does not play all six machines during the qualifying period, they shall receive a score of zero for any un-played machines.

All the scores on each machine are arranged in ranking order, with the contestant achieving the top score on a machine earning 100 qualifying points with a reducing scale for all lower scores.

A contestant’s qualifying score is the sum of all their qualifying points earned on all six machines. Contestants are then ranked according to their total qualifying points. The more qualifying points a contestant earns, the higher they will be ranked.

Contestants’ scores as well as individual machine scores will be displayed on a projector screen or on display monitors in the tournament area. As more contestants play, individual rankings may change, so contestants should keep checking their position.

When all games have been played and their scores recorded, the final rankings shall be declared.

The 20 highest ranked contestants then progress to Sunday’s final rounds. Contestants ranked 21 – 25 should also report to the tournament desk on Sunday morning for stand-by places should some qualifying contestants not be available.

Finals Round 1

There are nine machines used for the first round of the finals.

The 20 qualifying contestants from Saturday are joined by 16 pre-qualified UK Pinball League players to form a total group of 36 contestants.

In the first round, contestants are split into two groups – A and B.

Group A consists of qualifiers placed 11th - 20th from Saturday and the 8 lowest placed League pre-qualifiers.

Group B is made up from the top qualifiers placed 1st to 10th from Saturday and the top 8 League pre-qualifiers.

For League pre-qualifiers, the split into groups is as follows:

Group A starts play at 11am on Sunday, Group B starts at 1pm Sunday. Contestants should assemble so they are ready to begin play at their allocated time.

In the first round of the finals, contestants are allocated three machines to play and three different partners to play. The order of play will be shown on the displays.

Before each new machine is played for the first time, contestants are allowed 30 seconds of play to get a feel of the machine and to warm up. After 30 seconds is up, contestants swap over to allow the other contestant the same 30 seconds of warm up time.

After the warm up time is over, stewards will reset the machine and start the first game.

On each machine, contestants play 2 two-player games with their partner, taking it in turns to be player 1. After each game, the scores are noted and after both games have been played, each contestant's highest score of the two is their recorded score for that machine. The lower score is discarded.

When all contestants have completed their two games, they will move on to their second machine to play their two games and then on to their third machine for their final two games. Warm up time is allowed before each new machine is played.

After all games have been played on all three machines, Group A has finished and Group B will then play their games in the same way.

When both groups have played, all the scores on each machine are ranked and ranking points awarded with 100 ranking points for the top score and a reducing scale for all lower scores.

Each contestant’s score is the total of their ranking points on the three machines they played.

The eight contestants with the highest ranking points will go on to the semi-finals.

If there is a tie for the eighth place, the contestant with the highest ranking score on any individual machine will prevail and if there is still a tie, a single game on a random machine shall decide the position. If there are ties for position amongst the other seven places, the contestant with the lowest player number shall prevail, so register early.

Semi-Finals

The semi-finals shall take place on two machines.

Contestants are split into two groups, A and B:

Group A will consist of the 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th highest ranked contestants from Finals Round 1.

Group B will consist of the 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th highest ranked contestants from Finals Round 1.

Both groups will be allocated a machine and will play a single four-player five-ball game on their assigned machine. The highest ranked contestant will have first choice over their player position, followed by the second highest ranked and then the third highest ranked.

When all players have completed their game, the top two highest scoring contestants from each group go on to the final. The lowest two scorers go into the play-offs for 5th – 8th places.

Finals

The first match played will be for positions 5-8 and will consist of a single four-player, five-ball game on the chosen machine. As in the semi-finals, the highest ranked contestant from round 1 will have first choice of player position, followed by the next highest ranked and so on.

The winner of the game will finish 5th overall in the UK Pinball Open. The second highest scorer will finish 6th, the third highest scorer will finish 7th and the lowest scorer will be 8th.

The Grand Final will then follow using the same format – a single four-player five-ball game on the chosen machine.

The winner of the Grand Final will be the winner of the UK Pinball Open. The contestant with the second highest score will be second in the UK Pinball Open and so on.

WPPR Points Awards

The winner will also receive 25 WPPR points, the second placed competitor will get 15 WPPR points, the third placed competitor will earn 10 WPPR points and the competitor in fourth place will receive 5 WPPR points.

All qualifiers for Sunday's rounds (including UK Pinball League pre-qualifiers) will automatically earn 1 WPPR point.

If we get more than 72 competitors, all those ranked in the top 50% will receive 0.5 WPPR points if they don't qualify for Sunday, and those in the bottom 50% will receive 0.25 WPPR points.

UK PINBALL TEAM TOURNAMENT

The team competition will start on Saturday at 11am all teams from pool A must be registered to play by this time. As pre-registration is required for this tournament and as it is being run in tandem with the UK Pinball Lague finals, teams will be split into two groups, A & B as follows:

Group A starts play at 11am on Saturday, Group B starts at 1pm Saturday. Contestants should assemble so they are ready to begin play at their allocated time.

There will be 2 rounds in total, a qualifying round followed by a four team final.

There are eight machines in the qualifying round, each team will play on seven of these machines.

The team matches are as follows:

Teams register and pay their £10 entry fee, in return they will receive a score sheet and player badges.

There will be 3 matches against other teams from your group and one 4 ball team game against all other 15 teams.

• Within each group, there will be 3 matches in which two teams play each other on two machines, with two players from each team playing a four player, three ball game in a match scenario. 

• Once the match is over, points are awarded as follows: 1st  9 points, 2nd 5 points, 3rd 2 points and 4th zero points. These points are to be noted on the score card and verified by both team captains.

Over the 3 matches, this will give a team a maximum of 84 points.

Unfortunately, Teams 3, 4, 15 and 16 are allocated to play the same machines twice. Therefore, when their 2nd match takes place, the 2 team members who have not played the machine previously must play the match on that machine.

The 4 ball game

For the 4 ball game, there will be two identical machines. This is a one player 4 ball game (i.e. 1 ball per player).  All teams have been allocated a machine and a time to play. If you choose not to play in your allocated time slot and the game is not finished prior to the end of that entire group’s allotted time, no points will be awarded.

All 16 teams will play one of the 2 games and note their score, this score is to be verified by a tournament official. Should one of the games break down, all play will continue on the other machine until the broken down game is fixed. All completed games on the broken down machine will still count.

If there is a preference for a team to play a particular one of the two games, this is acceptable, but please note the timing rule above.

Points for the four ball game will be awarded as follows: 1st 15 points, 2nd 12 points, 3rd 10 points, 4th 7 points,  5th 5 points, 6th 4 points, 7th 3 points, 8th 2 points and 9th 1 point. All other places will score zero.

When all seven machines have been played and the scores recorded, the contestant’s entry is completed and they should vacate the playing area.

Total team scores as well as the “Team machine” scores will be displayed on a projector screen or on display monitors in the tournament area.

When all games have been played and their scores recorded, the final rankings will be declared. The four teams with the highest ranking points will go on to the finals.

If there is a tie for fourth place, the team with the highest score on the 4 ball “team game” will prevail and in the unlikely event that there is still a tie, a single game on one of the 4 ball machines shall decide the position.

Should a machine break down occur during the match and the machine cannot be repaired in a timely manner, a substitute machine will be brought in. All previous (completed) match points will still count on the broken down machine as this is a match scenario.

Should a machine malfunction occur, the tournament officials will liaise with the team captains in order to provide a solution suitable to both teams.

Whilst playing their ball, a player may have oral help from their non playing partner, but their partner MUST NOT touch the machine.

If any team is seen to be trying to gain an unfair advantage (such as a non player touching a launch button to use a “power bomb”) the team will be warned or at the discretion of the tournament officials disqualified from that match.

Final

The final will take a similar format, all eight machines will be used. Two members from each team will again play in matches on two machines simultaneously, each team will play each other once as follows in a 3 ball game:

Match 1
Team 1 vs Team 3  (Machines 1 and 2)
Team 2 vs Team 4  (Machines 3 and 4)

Match 2
Team 1 vs Team 2 (Machines 5 and 6)
Team 3 vs Team 4 (Machines 7 and 8)

Match 3
Team 1 vs Team 4  (Machines 1 and 4)
Team 2 vs Team 3  (Machines 3 and 6)

Again the points will be awarded as follows: 1st  9 points, 2nd 5 points, 3rd 2 points and 4th zero points. These points are to be noted on the score card and verified by both team captains.

Once all teams have played each other, the finals will be over. The winner will be the team with the most points, 84 being the maximum. Should there be a tie at the end of the final, the highest score from the four ball team game from round one shall be deemed as the decider.

UK PINBALL CLASSIC

Rules coming soon

UK PINBALL LEAGUE FINAL

This year the league final will be a stand alone event on the Saturday and not form part of the Open.  

There will be 20 finalists shown above who have qualified from the regional leagues as follows:  the top 5 from South East, top4 from Midlands, South West and Northern and top 3 from the Scottish regions.  

The format of the final will be very similar to a league meet:

• All finalists will play a 4 ball game on the same 5 machines and then be ranked against each other with 20 points awarded to 1st place on each machine down to 1 point for 20th.
  
  

• Normal league rules will apply ie  each machine will be set up in tournament mode and with no extra balls.   
  
  

• Points for each machine will then be added up and these totals used to determine the outcome of the league final; there will be no further semi final or final.  

In the event of a tie, the ranking will be based on which player got a higher score out of the two players concerned, on more of the 5 machines. With having 5 machines in the final (subject to not losing any) then this will always allow a tie to be resolved.  

In order to be as fair as possible to all finalists from different regions, the machines to be used in the final will be (subject to availability) the most commonly played machines at all league meets since the league started.  

The league finals will take place at the same time as the Team Tournament on Saturday, starting at 11am. 

In order to allow players to compete in both competitions, the league finalists will be split into 2 pools of 10. The 1st pool will play the league finals whilst the 2nd pool can play in the Team Tournament and then swap over. 

The split of finalists between the two pools will be purely based on fitting in with the Team Tournament.  

• Within each pool, there will be 5 rounds in which each finalist will play a 2 player game with one of the other finalists.
   

• Each round will not be started until all games from the previous round have been completed.
  
  

• Scores will be recorded at the end of the round once all games have been completed.  Each player should check that their score has been accurately recorded before a new game has been started.
   

• After having played one machine, the finalists will play another 2 player game on a different machine until after 5 rounds each player will have played one game on each of the 5 machines.
  
  

• In each of the 5 rounds, you will play your 2 player game with a different player which will be predetermined.  

However, how you do against the other player in your pair is largely irrelevant as the outcome will be based on how you did compared to the other 19 finalists and the 20 to 1 points allocation as referred to above.  

In the event of a malfunction, every effort will be made to resolve the problem as fairly as possible to both the player concerned and all other competitors such that no player gains an unfair advantage or suffers an unfair disadvantage. 

However, due to the nature of pinball and some games with progressing modes, it may not always be possible to return the player to the position they should have had prior to the malfunction, but every effort will be made to be treat all competitors fairly.  

The rules below are here to try to formalize how to deal with these situations but common sense will be used to ensure as fair a result as possible.  

• In the event of a malfunction, the player should contact the tournament director (league co-ordinator) to highlight the problem.     
  
  

• If the malfunction results in the player not being able to continue his game, he will be given the choice of either keeping the score or starting a new game.  However, he must decide before starting the new game and cannot choose the better score.  
  
  

• If the malfunction results in an unfair loss of a ball, the player must continue their game but will be allowed to play one ball of a new game and the scores from the 2 games will be added together.  
  
  

• If the malfunction results in an unfair award of extra points, then the player can choose to have an amount subtracted from their score representative of the extra points gained unduly if possible to estimate (to be determined by the tournament director following consultation with other league officials) or to restart their game.  
  
  

• It is the responsibility of each player to ensure that they play balls in their game and not the game belonging to other player in the pair.
  
  

• If a player does play the wrong ball, they should make every effort to transfer over as quickly as possible to the other player but the player whose game it should have been, will have to continue as best they can. 
  
  

• In any instance, the tournament director should be contacted to explain the situation. 
  
  

• At his discretion the tournament director may allow the player affected to play another ball (as above) but unless due to malfunction, the player will not be able to restart their game altogether.  
  
  

• Machines which suffer recurring malfunctions will be replaced subject to availability and scores from that machine will be voided.  If a replacement is not available then the scores will be based on 4 rather than 5 machines.  
  
  

• Once started, no player should restart their game unless authorized to do so by the tournament director. 
  
  

• Anyone considered to be actively trying to gain an unfair advantage through playing other players' balls, restarting their game without approval, unduly distracting or physically interfering with another player is at risk of being disqualified at the tournament director's discretion.  

However, in all areas requiring judgment, the tournament director will consult with other league officials and the decision reached will be final.

For more details about the UK Pinball League final, or if you have any queries, please contact the Tournament Organiser Greg Mott here.

UK PINBALL KIDS TOURNAMENT

Rules coming soon